


This is Joy, This is Summer

by Harukiya



Category: Akira (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, Ghost Town, Humor, Summer, Swearing, Swimming Boys, Trespassing, Underage Smoking, my poor attempt at, too many easter eggs here lmao, uh shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 14:11:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17367341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukiya/pseuds/Harukiya
Summary: They’ve been walking for what feels like hours in this heat. It’s the middle of summer and they really have nothing better to do, any of them, so Tetsuo guesses that’s why he agreed to come along. Not because Kaneda asked him to, pretty please with a cherry on top, or because he bribed him with hand rolled spliffs either.Tetsuo isn’t that easy. He’s just unbelievably bored.orKaneda ropes the boys into a mid summer trip to the Old City, where behind closed doors, not everything is what it seems.





	This is Joy, This is Summer

“Come on Tetsuo, hurry up! Why are you always so damn slow?” Yamagata laughs at Kaneda’s comment, but Tetsuo scowls and pictures himself kicking Kaneda in place of the rock by his foot. Kai shoots him a sympathetic smile over his shoulder, a nod to their short legged solidarity he supposes.

“This ghost town isn’t going anywhere! Why don’t  _you_  slow down?” Tetsuo yells back, but doesn’t really expect an answer. Doesn’t really expect to be heard. He doesn’t know why he agreed to come here.

It’s roughly three in the afternoon. The sun is high in the sky and draws sweat from their skin like a magnet. They parked their bikes about a mile back, where the road grew too rocky and uneven for them to risk riding down.

They don’t find roads like that in Neo Tokyo, don’t know what to expect. They may be risk takers, thrill seekers, but they’re sensible at the very least. Indulge in safety when they have the chance, especially when it affects the integrity of their already scrappy bikes.

The Old City is something else entirely foreign to their rugged way of life anyway. A step above and beyond their norm of unpredictably dangerous.

Kaneda approached him yesterday with a wide smile and a proposition, nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary. He wanted to know if Tetsuo would ride with him, Yama and Kai to the Old City and look for scrap metal they could cash out on.

Tetsuo, being rational, said no right off the bat, if not just to see how desperate Kaneda was for his cooperation. They bantered back and forth for a while about dumb shit, talked themselves into a circle, before Tetsuo finally relented to Kaneda’s overbearing persistence.

Nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary.

They’ve been walking for what feels like hours in this heat. It’s the middle of summer and they really have nothing better to do, any of them, so Tetsuo guesses that’s why he agreed to come along. Not because Kaneda asked him to, pretty please with a cherry on top, or because he bribed him with hand rolled spliffs either.

Tetsuo isn’t that easy. He’s just unbelievably bored.

He keeps his mind from wandering too far by kicking stray rocks on the path. Yamagata and Kaneda are talking loudly about something dumb probably and Kai pipes in every once in awhile with some thoughtful tidbit of information that Kaneda and Yamagata both don’t care to hear, seeing as they talk over him like he’s not there. It’s just like any other day really, just hotter and more bothersome.

Where is the spot Kaneda was talking about?  

Tetsuo sighs and fishes for a joint in his pocket, wipes sweat from his brow with the back of his arm. They’ve been passing collapsed building after building, run down shop after shop, rusty car after car, marching along steadfast to the tune of some overconfident dumbass who probably doesn’t even know where he’s going.

What’s new.

Tetsuo bets Kaneda heard about the scrap metal from Nanahara, who has a tendency to lie out his ass like his life depends on it. Kaneda knows this, but isn’t able to resist the possibility of making money, even if it’s a gamble.

There’s probably no scrap metal, the buildings were most likely stripped clean ages ago when the rumor of radiation died down and so did the speculation of mutated freaks inhabiting the Old City. This trip was probably just a waste of gas, and Tetsuo sparks up, inhales deeply and kicks a rock harshly in frustration right as Kaneda yells something incomprehensible from the front of their ragtag marching line.

“What?” Tetsuo says and not a second later Kai echoes his sentiment as Kaneda dashes over towards a small, quaint, faded yellow motel front with a busted in door and broken in windows. Yamagata follows leisurely behind and Kai perks up ahead of him to run after Kaneda.

Tetsuo is confused, and takes another long pull from his smoke as he slowly follows behind.

Crossing the threshold causes a shiver to break out over Tetsuo’s body. The temperature in the old motel is degrees cooler than outside. Kaneda, Kai, and Yamagata have already ventured deeper into the building. Tetsuo can hear their muffled exclamations and laughs, but he lingers back to examine the lobby in silence.

The air is musty and smells stale, another true testament to the age and condition of this ghost town. Through collapsed holes in the roof, sunshine beams down in scattered rays and thousands of air mites swim and dance in their light. Tetsuo wrinkles his nose and drowns whatever shit particles are floating in the air with an exhale of smoke. Kicks a stray piece of roof debris into what must have been the front desk.

Two sets of matching green arm chairs, bleached spotty by what little sun finds its way inside, sit more or less facing each other, arranged near the windows for guest seating. Broken rounded coffee tables cut between the seats and aside one of them, Tetsuo spots a magazine or two peeking out from underneath years of piled debris and dust. He moves around a rusty felled lamp and picks one up out of curiosity.

The pages are stiff but flimsy, similar to comic book pages. Nothing like the waxy laminate shine of the familiar skin mags and shonen jump. Tetsuo gives the book a shake, careful not to jostle the loose spine too much, and flips to the cover. Gently wipes a thick layer of dust from the title page with his palm.

“Huh…” The title is familiar. He’s seen this before. Shukan Shincho. Tetsuo’s old foster uncle used to read these to his gran. Tried to get Tetsuo interested in his collection. Of course, Tetsuo didn’t give a damn.

He flips to the inside page and tries to find a publication date, just out of curiosity…1992. Shit, that’s a relic. This book has been laying abandoned and untouched for four decades…this building, for even longer he bets. Tetsuo blows smoke out his nose and tucks the frail magazine into his jacket pocket. A little piece of the past for him to savor later.

There are broken pictures still half hung on the peeling wallpaper or shattered in pieces on the floor. One in particular catches his eye, sitting mostly upright and untouched behind the darkness of the front desk.

It’s a black and white picture of the motel front, fresh and pristine looking most likely for a grand opening. A family, father, mother, son, daughter, stand proudly underneath the sign displaying the name “Miyako Hotel”. Tetsuo squints his eyes to read the autograph in the corner.

“Grand opening…1972.” Tetsuo can’t hold in the breath of wonder that escapes him, nor the cloud of smoke. This place…how is it still standing? How are any of these buildings still here? Maybe Nanahara knew what he was talking about with this place, with the potential to cash out. Maybe this wasn’t for nothin’ after all.

“ _Tetsuo_.”

Lost in his thoughts, Tetsuo didn’t notice Kaneda sneak up behind him. He damn near jumps out of his skin at the sound of his name whispered in his ear, of the breath that ghosts over the back of his neck. Tetsuo jerks around to find Kaneda impishly smiling at him, hands in the air, sweaty hair matted to his forehead.

Trying to act innocent, but that’s never been a good look for him. Dumbass, however, has always suited him perfectly.

“God, you  _asshole_!” Kaneda simply laughs in response and plucks the half smoked spliff from between Tetsuo’s pointing fingers.

“God? Most definitely. Asshole? Eh….more or less.” Tetsuo rolls his eyes and wonders to himself for the billionth time why he’s friends with this childish moron. Kaneda suddenly blows a cloud of smoke in Tetsuo’s face, and the thought only intensifies.

“I’ve been callin’ your name forever Tets, thought maybe you’d fallen down a hole or something!” Tetsuo scowls and brushes past Kaneda, bumping intentionally into his shoulder. His silence was nice while it lasted.

“I wish.” Kaneda, not bothered by his sour tone, strides around him and blocks Tetsuo’s way further into the motel. Braces his arms against a splintered, swollen door frame and leans towards Tetsuo’s scowl with a smile split open around the butt of their smoke. He reeks of sweat and his face is flushed heavily with exertion, quite likely a sunburn too.

“Awe, come’on, don’t say that! The only way to go down a hole is by being pushed.” Tetsuo crosses his arms at that and makes a face.

“What kind of dumb shit are you on?” Kaneda must find his response funny because he snickers, effectively letting the snub of their shared spliff fall, dead, between them. Tetsuo is the first to step on it, grind it into dust with his heel so it doesn’t catch them on fire. Kaneda’s eyes have that bright gleam to them again. Maybe Tetsuo didn’t put it out quick enough.

“Come on, check this out. I found what I was looking for.” Before Tetsuo can question the secular ‘I’, Kaneda has his wrist in hand and is yanking him along the length of the hallway. Tetsuo manages to catch glimpses of a few of Miyako Motel’s finest rooms on the way, a kaleidoscope of moldy, peeling wallpapers, broken, collapsed beds, tattered curtains and upholstery. This place is surprisingly well kept, considering it’s older than the four of them combined. Tetsuo idly wonders what happened to the family that ran it….if Kaneda is about to show him a decrepit pit of skeletons.

Kaneda is in fact not going to show him a decrepit pit of skeletons. He comes to a halt quickly in front of a closed door, numbered room 26, and causes Tetsuo to run right into his back.

“Here we are!” They’re at the end of the hallway, but it stretches left and right a few more rooms each way. He can hear Yamagata and Kai talking excitedly behind the door. Their voices seem to carry further than normal, as if they’re not in a room confined by four walls, give or take.

Interesting.

Tetsuo cranes his neck around Kaneda’s shoulder, chest to back, curious but hesitant. Unwilling to make the first move to investigate further. Kaneda turns to watch his expression shift, a wide grin set on his face. Tetsuo can feel Kaneda’s breath on his cheek as he leans forward to push open the door.

Immediately he is blinded by the sunlight. Tetsuo hadn’t noticed how quickly his eyes adjusted to the dark of the motel until he was thrown out of it and into a wide open space behind a closed door. It takes him a minute to get his bearings, and Tetsuo feels Kaneda’s arm brush softly against his as he moves past him towards Yama and Kai.

“Dude this place is  _awesome_! How did Nanahara even find it?”

“Get this, he told me his ex-girlfriends sister took him here once…when he was still dating Ichiko.”

“God, that guy sure is a fuckin’ tool.”

The three of them dissolve into raucous laughter and Tetsuo finally opens his eyes. The sight that greets him is, well….not what he expected.

There is no room 26. The old, abandoned motel layout Tetsuo was expecting, simply isn’t there. There aren’t four walls, give or take. There  _are_  no walls. The floor is gone. The ceiling, gone. Nothing left but an imperfectly round cookie cutter hole in the ground, an open courtyard made of back alleys and bisected buildings that have collapsed below ground level into a crater roughly six feet below the foundation where they stand. From the floor that used to belong to room 26.

It’s like some benevolent God punched a giant hole right through the buildings and deep into the ground from the heavens above. 

“Woah.” Tetsuo manages, and Kai appears in his line of sight suddenly. But he’s on the opposite side of the crater, hugging the jagged, exposed wall structure of an adjacent building that is distinctly different than the one story motel they entered.

The crater, which is really more a sinkhole than anything, is about thirty-five feet wide all around, cutting almost completely into what would have been another picture perfect motel room, and what appears to be the back end of a three story office building. The sinkhole is filled with crystal clear water and a bobbing layer of small green plants that cling to the rough edges of exposed earth. Tetsuo can make out a few shapes at the bottom, distorted by the ripples in the water. He thinks he sees a bed frame…a vague impression of a dresser.

“No way…”

The sinkhole starts about five feet from the door to room 26, a sheer drop off from the edge of the floor where Tetsuo stands. It’s much deeper than he would expect. From the six foot drop to the water, maybe another twenty or thirty to the bottom. Tetsuo really doesn’t know. Hasn’t seen anything like this before.

It’s absolutely surreal. A fresh swim hole in the middle of the most rotten, run down part of town. Literally. The water at the community pool doesn’t even look that clear.

This is obviously what Kaneda had in mind the whole time, what he dragged them out on the hottest summer day for. There was never any scrap metal, or never any of real importance to Kaneda in the face of a war made swim hole. Tetsuo isn’t even mad about it, really. He’ll just make Kaneda reimburse him for gas money when they get back into town.

“Oh man, do you see those plants? Do you know what those are?!” Kai’s voice is loud with excitement and Tetsuo looks over to him from across the gap. He looks even smaller over there, hanging onto an exposed cluster of electrical wire for stability as he leans out over the pit.

“Yeah, hard not to. They’re everywhere.” Yamagata’s voice calls somewhere off to his left, and when Tetsuo turns to follow his voice he sees him sliding onto the hood of a rusted out shell of a car. It sits sandwiched between what Tetsuo assumes is the back wall of a neighboring room of the Miyako Motel and the office building.

“I think…I think they’re duckweed! I could be wrong, but I know they-” Kaneda cuts him off casually, his voice almost making Tetsuo jump again as it calls out from behind him.

“Wait, did you just say dickweed?”

“No, duck-”

“Was that a fuck?”

“No, you dick!”

“So fuckweed?”

“Yes, fuckweed!  _Wait_ -” Kaneda and Yamagata’s laughter echoes around the open space in harmony, a good sound to hear in fours. Kai manages a laugh or two himself, despite his eye roll being painfully evident to Tetsuo from across the way, and he can’t quite fight the grin on his face. This sure as hell beats being bored out of his mind, even if Kaneda’s pestering to come along shortened his lifespan by a year.

“What’s so important about duckweed?” Tetsuo calls the question out to Kai as he turns his gaze upward, curious as to where the large portion of broken building got off too.

While the floor of the motel collapsed inwards, the roof, walls, and floor of the office building adjacent aren’t scattered around the edges of the sinkhole. They don’t even seem to be inside it, either. That amount of rubble would have covered the furniture from the motel room and there’s no buildup of debris on the bottom anyway. It’s as if it was all swept away with the wind, blown away in a tornado or something…odd.

“Duckweed is an oxygenating pond plant. It’s real common in Koi ponds. I’m surprised it managed to survive out here in the middle of no man’s land.”

Could the debris have been blown away to the side by the initial force of the explosion? Maybe into the narrow alleyway in between the two buildings? Tetsuo carefully moves to the right and sticks his head around the jagged building edge. There is debris cluttering the space all the way out to the mouth of the alley, where Tetsuo can faintly see the road, but it’s residual from the motel itself. Distinctive by the faded yellow paint. To the left, behind the car Yamagata is now sunbathing on, there’s not much Tetsuo can see.

Weird.

“Oxygenating…what does that mean?” Kaneda’s voice is sheepish, quieter than before, still sounding somewhere from behind Tetsuo. Always hesitant to admit he doesn’t know the answer

“In simplest terms, it puts oxygen into the water through the nutrients it absorbs  _from_  the water. Like, how we breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. It’s a natural filter of sorts to-”

“Yeah, ok, heard ya’ loud and clear Professor Kaisuke! I’ll be handin’ in my essay by the end of the week!” Kaneda’s comment makes them all fall into laughter once more. Tetsuo’s interest in the whereabouts of the office building vanish into thin air, replaced with a sudden, overwhelming thirst. It’s still too damn hot, and they’re under the sun’s rays full force again.

They should have brought more water.

“So that makes the water, like, swimmable, righ?” Kaneda boldly asks the question on all their minds.

“I mean, uh, not necessarily-”

“If it filters the water and it puts oxygen in there too, that sounds pretty damn swimmable to me!” As Tetsuo edges more toward the center of room 26’s partially collapsed floor, he sees Kaneda throw a piece of debris into the hole and watch the ripples spread out through the water, cause the duckweed to bob on its surface.

“I mean, yes, but there could be certain contaminants and pollutants that the plants can’t filter out….we don’t know how long the water has been there for, if it’s mutated acid water, if it’s mutated acid  _rain_ water…”

“Did Nanahara say he went swimming here?” Yamagata calls from his perch on the rusted car. He’s sitting up now, taking interest in the topic. Tetsuo sees him shake sweat from his head.

“Eh, well, not exactly…does skinny dipping count?” Kai, too, throws a piece of rubble into the hole and pulls an observant face as the resounding splash echoes satisfyingly. He seems to be testing the strength of the electrical wires in his grasp, leaning more precariously towards the face of the hole. Tetsuo unwraps his jacket from around his waist, and throws it toward the door

“Of course it does. If they walked away from that alive and with no third eyes or nipples, it’s fine.” Kanada barks out a laugh at Yamagata’s comment and starts to unbuckle his boots, tossing one, two, right on top of Tetsuo’s jacket. He doesn’t bother acknowledging Tetsuo’s annoyed scowl.

“Why a third nipple as example?” Kai asks curiously.

“I don’t know, my uncle has three nipples. It’s pretty freaky.”

“Oh…cool.” Kaneda interjects with a clap, rallying the troops attention with his boisterous voice.

“Ok, so, there’s only one way to actually find out if this water is gonna kill us!…And that’s to jump in and see.” Silence falls at the suggestion. Tetsuo sees Kai glance at Yamagata, Yama glance at Kai, Kaneda glance between the two of them, before finally turning towards Tetsuo with a smile.

“…You first Kaneda.” Is of course Tetsuo’s natural response.

“Mh, yeah no, I’m good, got a lot to live for, still haven’t met the love of my life, I gotta hold out for her you know?” Tetsuo sighs and shifts on his feet, crosses his arms. Highly unlikely.

“If I die my mom would kill me…she would bring my ass back to life and then kill me again for dying. I’m good.” Kai sucks air in through his teeth loudly and makes a sound of confirmation at Yama’s comment.

“I have bills to pay.” Is what Kai says immediately after though. And then all eyes are on him.

“Tetsuo, buddy,  _pal_  -” Kaneda tries.

“No.” Tetsuo shuts him down.

“Oh, come on. Take one for the team!” Yama’s comment makes Tetsuo’s eye twitch. He wishes his arms weren’t already crossed so he could re-cross them in indignation at his stupid words.

“Like I took one for the team last time and got a week’s worth of after school detention for you dumb-asses trynna’ shoot spitballs down Tanaka’s wrinkly old throat?” There are a few snickers from around their spread out circle. Kaneda tries, and fails, to hide a grin behind his hand.

“Hey, you got some good shots in yourself.” Kai adds thoughtfully, and Tetsuo fumes.

“ _Not_ the point. Your idea Kaneda, you go first.”

“Fine…” Kaneda relents…too quickly. Too easily.

“Fine?” Tetsuo edges towards Kaneda, cautiously, uncertain if the determined look on Kaneda’s face is real or maybe he’s having a heat stroke.

“Fine…I’ll go first after you!” Of course he was wrong.

Kaneda rams into Tetsuo’s side suddenly, making Tetsuo scramble to grab onto his damp shirt, his sweaty skin, but Tetsuo can’t get a grip, and is pushed right over the edge. Gets a split second image of Kaneda’s shit eating grin, of anger, rage, of a curdling fear in his gut as he falls, before he makes impact with the water and goes under.

It’s a shock to his system. The water is unnaturally cool, crisp, another stark contrast to the general heat of today. The oxygen bubbles that run along his skin as he descends tingle almost like pins and needles, but better. Tetsuo doesn’t open his eyes, doesn’t want his retinas to burn away, but he can see sunlight streaming through the clear water behind his eyelids. A mosaic of shining lights.

The feel of the water around him, the quiet of submergence, quickly washes away the anger Tetsuo felt falling in. The pressing exhaustion of existence, something he doesn’t like to acknowledge unless he’s alone. But as he rises a minute later, starts to kick up to the surface as his lungs ache, the fire reignites.

He breaks the surface with a cough, hears through his own splashing a chorus of voices asking if he feels like his skin is melting off or if he’s growing a third nipple. Tetsuo grits his teeth, and no one of course is surprised by the first thing that comes out of his mouth.

“ _Kaneda_! ” Tetsuo hears his voice echo loudly around the open space, a crescendo of anger and upset. Kaneda simply laughs in answer and comments from somewhere above him, “Yup, he’s fine, looks like the waters safe after all!”

Kai and Yamagata are the only ones Tetsuo can see from inside the swim hole, staring at him with wide grins on their faces. Tetsuo wipes duckweed from his cheek and flips them off.

“Here I come,  _Tetsuo_!” Is the only warning he gets before a shadow descends on the swim hole and a mad scramble to avoid being landed on ensures. Kaneda’s voice too echoes on the way down, and his splash throws duckweed onto Tetsuo’s face again. The other two follow shortly after.

“Man, that was weak!  _This_  is how you make a splash!” Yamagata uses the roof of the car like a stiff diving board and catapults himself into the water. His splash makes a big impact and causes water to slosh off the rough earth lining the swim hole. Tetsuo shakes water out of his ear just as Kaneda emerges from below with a gasp and a smile. Tetsuo wipes it away with a big splash of water.

“Make way assholes!” Kai announces suddenly, and another shadow falls on the swim hole, but it swings like a pendulum. Kai is using the hanging electrical wires like a rope swing, and after another sweep over the floor of the open office building, he lets go and splashes fiercely into the swim hole as Yamagata breaks the surface with a holler.

“Do you hate me?” Kaneda asks him after spitting a cocktail of water and duckweed out of his mouth.

“Yes!” Is of course Tetsuo’s natural response.

“Awe, Tets, stop lying to yourself!” Kaneda’s face is smug as he plucks a piece of plant from the tip of Tetsuo’s nose. He scowls and swats at Kaneda, who ducks into the water momentarily to avoid being hit.

“I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life! You’re a fucking dumbass asshole!” Kaneda is good at laughing off Tetsuo, is good at laughing at Tetsuo, but he will admit…he is kind of grateful for it. He’s usually not 100% serious with his anger, with his insults. But Kaneda can’t know that.

“Haha, you really got me feelin the love!” Is of course Kaneda’s cocky response and Tetsuo feels his eye twitch again. Kaneda can never know.

“Oh yeah? Tell me, how does  _this_  feel?” Tetsuo dunks Kaneda’s head harshly underwater, fights a smile as Yama and Kai aggressively splash each other a few feet away, laughing all the while. It’s pure fun and games for the rest of the day, spent largely joking around and cooling off in the water, until the sun starts to sink in the sky and Kai asks sagely as he floats among a thin sheet of duckweed, looking waterlogged and sunburnt-

“Uh…how exactly are we supposed to get out of here?”

**Author's Note:**

> And thus they died there. The end. 
> 
> jk they found a foothold in the rock face and climbed Yamagata like a latter to freedom :)


End file.
